A similar use of <hund> in decad names is found
in West Germanic (most consistently in Old English), but there <hund>
comes first:
70 hund-seofontig
80 hund-eahtatig
90 hund-nigontig
100 hund-têontig (= hund)
110 hund-aendlaeftig
120 hund-twelftig
The correspondence <sibuntêhund> =
<hund-seofontig> suggests that the correct division of <sibuntêhund>
is <sibuntê-hund>, where <-tê> corresponds to <-tig>. Since
<-tê> can hardly derive from Goth. *-tigjus, we can hypothesise that the
more archaic neuter variant *-texu < *-téxu: survives here:
*sibuntexuxunda- > *sibunte:xunda (haplology
combined with compensatory lengthening)
I don't think this dialectal use of <hund> in
upper decad names has anything to do with the original function of PIE *dk^mtóm
as a Gen.pl. form ("of sets of ten"). It's quite evident that <hund> in
these constructions means simply "a hundred (or something of that order
anyway)", and that the decad names in the range 70-120 denoted such "approximate
hundreds" in an explicit manner, with some redundancy.
(A curiosity: Crimean Gothic had <sada> '100',
an Iranian loan.)
Comments welcome.
ISHINAN: I would add that the "curiosity" you alluded to above
is repeating itself verbatim in Arabic. As 's.dd', according to
Lane, is a Persian word <sada> for 100 which is used
often by Arabs.
However, amazingly, in another situation, Arabic
's.dd' (a homonym) means side, beside, and aside.
Compare with:
sîdôn f. Seite. an. sía f. Seite (des menschlichen
und tierischen Körpers), Küste; as. sîda, afries. ags. sîde f. (engl. side);
ahd. sîta, sîtta, mhd. sîte f., nhd. Seite. Substantiviertes Adj.
sîda.
side (n.) O.E. side "flanks of a person, the long
part or aspect of anything," from P.Gmc. *sithon (cf. O.S. sida, O.N. siða,
M.Du. side, O.H.G. sita, Ger. Seite).
It is also pertinent to mention that 'hnd' in Classical
Arabic (a non-Indo-European language) means a hundred, a hundred camels, a
hundred other things, a hundred years.
Compare with
hundred O.E. hundred "the number of 100, a
counting of 100," from W.Gmc. *hundrath (cf. O.N. hundrað, Ger. hundert), first
element is P.Gmc. *hunda- "hundred" (cf. Goth. hund, O.H.G. hunt), from PIE
*kmtom "hundred" (cf. Skt. satam, Avestan satem, Gk. hekaton, L. centum, Lith.
simtas, O.Ir. cet, Bret. kant "hundred").
hundred; pl. u; n. A hundred :-- Getalu vel heápas
vel hundredu centurias, Ælfc. Gl. 96; Som. 76, 25; Wrt. Voc. 53, 34. Ðeáh ðe
heora hundred seó though there be a hundred of them, Ps. Th. 89, 10. On lxv and
þreó hundræd hi beóþ tódlede they are divided into three hundred and sixty-five,
Nar. 49, 25. Seox hundred wintra and iii and hundseofenti wintra, Chr. 656; Erl.
33, 34. Hundrað scillinga centum denarios, Mt. Kmbl. Lind. 18, 28. On twegera
hundred penega wurþe. Jn. Skt. 6, 7. Wið þrím hundred penegon, 12, 5. Mid twám
hundred penegon, Mk. Skt. 6, 40. Hí ðá ston hundredon and fíftigon discubuerunt
per centenos et per quinquagenos, 37. [O. Frs. hundred, hunderd: Icel. hundrað:
O. H. Ger. hundert: Ger. hundert. Two etymologies are suggested for the word;
according to one hunder- corresponds to Lat. centur-ia; according to the other
-red (Icel. rað) is a suffix akin to the -ræðr which is found in Icel. átt-rædr,
etc. v. Grmm. Gesch. D. S. 175-6.]
Lastly, I would like to mention
that A.E. has 'sht' which means a hundred. The reading 'shnt'
has been also proposed.
The gist of mentioning all these parallels in Arabic (a non
Indo-European language) demonstrates how flimsy PIE reconstruction can be.
Not everything advertised is to be taken as
sacrosanct. A simple comparison,
which includes the FULL extent of the available isoglosses (often
extending to non-Indo-European languages), can be very persuasive.
Reconstruction ought not to be pick and choose.
All the above examples, with full definitions in Arabic and English
dictionaries, can be viewed by clicking the following URL: